SCENES FROM
THE TITHE WAR IN CO. CORK
THE CARRIGTWOHILL TITHE AFFRAY
See also - 1833 Cork Tithe War
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
See also – ‘The Carrigtwohill Tithe Affray, 1833,’ By Liam Ó Buachalla, in Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol. LXVI, No. 203, January-June, 1961, pps. 70 - 73
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Extract from the ‘Cork Constitution, or Cork Advertiser,’ 1833. This newspaper was, throughout its lifetime, the mouthpiece of the Establishment in Cork. County Cork place names in bold type.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
| JUNE 4 – SERIOUS TITHE AFFRAY – Late yesterday an account arrived in town of an attack on two Magistrates and a party of Military and Police, near Carrigtwohill, a bout ten miles from Cork. Arrangements having been made for the service of tithe processes in that neighbourhood, the Military were sent to Middleton for the purpose of being near to the Parish. This, it is supposed, operated as a signal for opposition, as on Sunday night fires were to be seen on every hill in the district. On Monday the Magistrates p Edward Wallis Hoare, Captain, RB, and Marshal Cummins, Esqrs., accompanied by an Officer and about 80 men of the 29th Regiment, together with a party of Police, commanded by Captain angle, proceeded to the lands of Rossmore, south of Carrigtwohill, which is within the district of Glanmire Petty Sessions, of which district Messers. Hoare and Cummins are Magistrates. On their approach, horns were blown, and the country people, who were assembling from all quarters, continued to arrive until a large number were congregated almost in contact with the Magistrates and their party, and the surrounding hills were covered with multitudes of by no means uninterested spectators. |  |
| They used the most offensive and exasperating language, and assailed the Military and Police with stones. Many of the former were struck, as were also the Magistrates, who exhibited the utmost forbearance, and repeatedly entreated the infatuated people to desist. But in vain. Stones continued to be showered on the party under their command; even fire-arms were used by the crowd, and it was not until one of the soldiers had been shot dead, that extreme measures were resorted to for the protection of the remainder. For that, these measures were imperatively demanded. Every thing short of them had been tried, and tried without success. The lives of the party were at hazard, and it was only when no other hope of safety offered, that the last alternative was resorted to, and the military were ordered to fire. The order was instantly obeyed – with that effect we have not ascertained, but several, we believe, were wounded. Perceiving no probability of being able to complete the business which they had begun, the Magistrates agreed to desist from the further service of notices and to return to Carrigtwohill, whither they commenced their march. This, however, did not satisfy the multitude, nor did the measure adopted |  |
| by the military for their protection deter them from the prosecution of their object. They continued to assail the party with stones and execrations, compelling them frequently to turn in their own defence – until they reached the village of Carrigtwohill. In addition to the death of the soldier, several of the police were badly wounded. The Magistrates, Captain Hoare and Mr. Cummins, each suffered severely, especially the latter, by blows from stones. Mr. Cummins, indeed, besides contusions in the head and side, had his foot pierced by a pitchfork, which entered it deeply – dividing some of the tendons, and inflicting a grievous wound. These are the particulars, so far as they have reached us. Whether any of the unfortunate people have been wounded fatally, we have not heard, but we believe they have suffered deeply by their infatuated resistance to the execution of the law. These are the fruits – the bitter fruits of that wicked and unprincipled system by which, from end to end, the country has been convulsed, the law defied, the peace disturbed, and the authorities derided and |
 |
| contemned. Even within the last few days, the agents of this system have been at work in the neighbourhood of Middleton. Frequent meetings have been held, at one of which the persons assembled were instructed, not merely to refuse the payment of tithes, but, as we are informed, to resist it by force. How well the instructions were obeyed, let the event we have narrated tell. But while the people suffer, shall those who make them suffer escape? While they fall the victims of a mischievous resistance to the law and authorities of the land, shall those who counsel the resistance, but who have not the manliness in their own persons to brave the consequences – shall they be permitted to go free? Some of those to whom we allude assume the name of gentlemen, and style themselves the friends of the people whom they thus betray. With what feelings they view the consequence of the provocatives which they have administered to the passions of their deluded dupes, we neither know nor care; but we do know that if ever peace is to be established in this distracted country, the law must lay its hand on these gentry, and deprive them of the power of sporting with the lives and properties of the King’s subjects. |  |
_________________________________________________________________________________
JUNE 6 – THE AFFRAY NEAR CARRIGTWOHILL – The fires which burned on the hills in the Vicinity of Carrigtwohill and the Country round about on Sunday night, augured but too certainly that some of the old habitual mischief was in contemplation. It was the subject of much curiosity and conjecture on Monday in this City – but before the day closed – the cause was displayed in the fatal facts which reached town, and which appeared in the last CONSTITTION. This rebellious outrage moves and troubles the public feeling – as it is natural it should – and many renounce the hope of ever seeing anything like a safe repose maintainable in this Country. But those who come to this conclusion, do not reason carefully – and if they be disappointed in the effect of the new powers vested in the Executive, it is not fair to impute the disappointment to the reluctant employment of that power, or to its insufficiency to bring about the end for which it was designed. It should be recollected that the Organisation for collecting the peasantry together in masses, exists now, as much as it did before the enactment of the Suppression Bill – that agitators are as hungry and wicked as they ever were – that a secret and unremitting bad ingenuity, labours to maintain excitement, sufficient to keep the humble and ignorant in the disposition ready to renew those flagitious enterprises against peace, property, and life itself, with which that class has been habitually familiar, - and that when the preventive system against any public evil resolves itself into force – the degree of the force employed always decides the efficacy of the application. There were many, we know, who imagined, that the Suppression Bill had insured, at least, a suspension from those sanguinary crimes under which the Country had groaned – that the most reckless agitators would be likely to become passive, however closely they might watch the course of events = and not by premeditated violations of the laws, or by an obstinate perseverance in the old iniquities, draw down the vengeance of the State, clothed as its arm is in the might of strength – and involve the innocent in the severe consequences of an abortive desperation. But they did not know the stuff of which the Irish agitators are made, or they would not have placed among the restraints upon their own evil, a sympathy for the suffering of the innocent. Those artists in confusion have not a feeling beyond themselves – and if they can keep themselves safe, they will not scruple to employ their dupes even to their certain destruction, rather than let the Country settle into a repose which would cast themselves into the dust. Expectations of tranquillity might not be too visionary, if the country people were not wrought upon by insidious counsels – Left to themselves, and the natural workings of their own minds and feelings, they might have become reconciled to exchange habits of atrocity, for those of forbearance from wickedness – but they are not left to themselves – the demon whispers temptation into their ears – and when the fires are commanded to be lighted upon the hills at night, preparation for destruction re-commences with unabated zeal and desperation. There are some particulars relating to the melancholy transaction alluded to, which are requisite to be known, before the necessity of the result which did take place can be clearly understood. We wait for those before we touch that very unfortunate part of the subject.
SERVICE OF THE NOTICES – THE INQUEST, &c. – On Tuesday a strong body of military and police proceeded to the parish of Immogeesha, near Carrigtwohill, for the purpose of completing the service of the notices which had been suspended on the proceeding day. The troops engaged were, the 28th and a depot of the 29th regiments, the 7th Dragoons Guards, under General Arbuthnot, and some parties of Artillery from Ballincollig. They were accompanied by Capt. Hoare, RN, Major Miller, Captain Bury, Captain Nangle, J. Smith Barry, and Abraham J. Devonshire, Esqrs. As before, there was an immense concourse of people in attendance – indeed the country for miles round appeared drained of its inhabitants in order to swell the multitude and overawe the military; but the arrangements for encountering any disposition to resistance were so formidable that none was offered. The object of the expedition was effectually executed; the notices were served upon all for whom they were intended, and at an advanced hour in the evening, the troops, with the exception of a few companies despatched to Midleton, returned to town, and the country patriots, baffled and disappointed, wended their weary way to their respective habitations. A number of those who refused to disperse on Monday after the reading of the Riot Act have been apprehended and committed to prison.
We had hoped to be able in our present number to lay before our readers the evidence of the witnesses examined at the Coroner’s Inquest on the body of the soldier shot on Monday, and with that view a Reporter was despatched from this Office for Midleton on Tuesday; but as the Inquest was not held until yesterday, and up to twelve o clock last night we had not received our report – nor, so far as we can learn, had any account of the proceedings reached town – we are obliged to defer until Saturday the fulfilment of our intention. Various reports have been in circulation respecting the party from which the death shot proceeded, but we have not as yet the least reason to doubt that in all the main features of the whole transaction the account which we gave on Tuesday will be found correct. The Coroner who presides is James O Brien, Esq. The unfortunate deceased belonged to the 29th, and was but sixteen years of age.
In one of the reports to which we have alluded it has been stated that the injuries received by Mr. Cummins were inflicted by the hands of women. The fact is not so, nor was there any woman present at their perpetration. Mr. Cummins had gone to the house of a Mr. Coppinger, who resided at a short distance, for the purpose of procuring a car to convey to Midleton the body of the deceased soldier. – Here he waited until the car was ready, and on his return, when passing through a shrubbery near the house, he was met by a number of those who had been engaged in the attack upon the troops. It was here – alone – detached from his party, and without a prospect of assistance from them, that his brutal assailants rushed on him, and with the savageness characteristic of cowardice when sustained by numerical superiority, endeavoured to deprive of life a gentleman against whom the only cause of their hostility was, that he was endeavouring to uphold that law which it was their duty to obey.
_________________________________________________________________________________
>JUNE 8 – THE AFFRAY AT IMMOGEESHA [MOGEESHA] – The Verdict of the Coroner’s Inquest upon the body of the soldier who was either shot by accident, or murdered by design at Immogeesha [Mogeesha] on Monday last, terminates the inquiry into that unfortunate result of a resistance to the Law, by the populace. We have no want of respect for the Jury, nor any strong opposition to the verdict, as the proceedings on the occasion have been communicated – but it would seem, as far as such published proceedings are authority for an impartial opinion, that some of the interrogatories which were put to the Witnesses, shewed a disposition to seek for exculpation on the part of the insurgent assemblage, - of whose having congregated together predetermined to oppose the process of the law, no manner of doubt existed – or ever can exist. Testimony to the character of a District for peaceable behaviour, is at all times ridiculous – and in such a case as calls for a Coroner’s investigation it is wholly out of view. The question before the Inquest is always simple, and limited to the cause of the mortal effect to be inquired into – and the general character of a Parish, Barony, or District, has no connection with it. The distinction attempted to be made between outrageous assemblances against the law in cases of process for tithes, and against the law in cases of process fir tithes, and against the law in other cases, is not only absurd, but mischievous – arbitrarily conceived, foolishly applied to practice – and evidently denoting an erroneous bias of opinion wholly inexcusable upon any ground of law or justice. We can tell such persons as have embraced this error, that there is not an apology to be found for resisting debts on account of tithes, which is not to be pleaded for resistance made to any other debts, - that the Clergy are not yet outlawed – and that this over-subtle distinction finds a place only in those minds, where prejudice previously rules with too strong a dominion. We have said that we want no respect for the Jury, and do not offer any objection to their verdict – which under circumstances might stand upon fact, though the fact be inaccessible at present. It appears to us by the report (which we have adopted from a contemporary Journal) that Lieutenant Byng’s testimony was more important, than it seems to have been considered; and that the comments and remarks which accompanied the delivery of it, were not in strict season. But the verdict, even if miscalculated, cannot intercept the ultimate end of justice, if it should turn out hereafter, - that the person among the mob whom Mr. Byng swore he had seen with a gun in his hand, should prove not to deserve any of those explanations for his being then armed with a deadly weapon, which were insinuated for him, during the inquiry. Though what has occurred must be regretted yet upon the whole most men will perhaps think, that it is well that matters were not worse. Mr. Cummins, the Magistrate, who had nearly lost his life under ruffian hands, escaped, and happily is recovering – and the consequences of the rebellious movement alluded to have left no deplorable chasm in society. – There are a few particulars which have come to our knowledge, which are not to be gleaned from any thing arising out of the proceedings of the Inquest – and which cannot but be interesting to the public.
Before the measures ultimately adopted by the Military for their defence were resorted to, not only had they to endure a continued shower of stones from a distance, but two systematic assaults had been made on them in order to overwhelm them by numbers and deprive them of their arms. The first was repelled by an united charge of cavalry and infantry; the assailants were driven back, and for a moment compelled to relinquish their object, or at least to suspend the attempt at its execution. This, however, was but for a moment. They soon rallied, and returning in accumulated numbers, with increased violence, and more decided indications of determination, they rushed in a dense mass upon the soldiers. The order was then given; the soldiers fired – with what effect we were not on Tuesday able to state; but a countryman has since been found dead in an adjoining corn-field, and, as usually happens in such cases, privately interred by his friends. Two others, it has been ascertained, were wounded – the one by a ball which passed through his hat and grazed his head – the other slightly in the body.
The escape of Mr. Cummins was exceedingly narrow. The attack on him was made, as we have already mentioned, in a shrubbery of Mr. Coppinger’s, when he was detached from his party, and without the prospect of aid from them. Mr. Coppinger’s son interfered for his protection, but was dragged from him by the infuriate mob who surrounded him, and who with stones and pitchforks endeavoured to deprive him of life. At this moment, Captain Nangle fortunately made his appearance in search of Mr. Cummins, and to his expeditious arrival, accompanied by a party of Dragoons, Mr. Cummins is, under Providence, indebted for his life.
The Law Processes which were serving, were for recovery of Promisary Notes passed for tithes due in the years 1830 and 1831, and not for recovery of the tithes of 1832, as has been stated.
INQUEST ON THE BODY OF THE SOLDIER – The inquest on the body of Michael Maguire, the soldier shot on Monday, was held in Midleton on Wednesday. The following report of the proceedings we take from an Evening Paper. The Coroner, James O Brien, Esq., appeared on the Bench about 12 o clock, accompanied by Edw. Hoare, jun., Esq., Abm. Devonshire, Esq., Major Gallwey, Captain Nangle, Captain Lucas, of the 29th, and several other Officers. The following highly respectable Jury having been sworn:- Richard Coppinger, Henry Allen, Joseph Coppinger, James Adams, Thomas Dwyer, Francis Owgan, Patrick Burke, G. A. Russell, James Francis, B. J. Hackett, James Dwyer, Henry Riordan,
The first witness called was –
George Wilkins, private of the 29th Regiment, who, being sworn and examined, said – I know the lands of Rossmore; I was on duty there last Monday with part of my regiment; we were all under the command of Capt. Lucas, and in consequence of seeing the people disposed to resist near the house of a person living at Immogeesha [Mogeesha], he ordered our party to divide, directing some of us to proceed to the hill above the house, while he commanded others to remain in the plain before it. The people immediately commenced throwing stones, and I think there were about one hundred thrown before the firing commenced. I remained with the party on the hill and did not see any one knocked down by the stones. There were five or six shots fired, when I turned to the rear and desired the men to stoop, and on turning round I heard a ball whizz by me, and saw the deceased, who was directly in my front, instantly fall dead. These shots must, I suspect, have been fired by the party placed before the house. There was a garden in which the country people were assembled in great numbers, between those who were on the hill, and the soldiers and the police drawn up on the beach adjoining the house. I think we were about a hundred yards from the party on the strand. I was looking at the party who were firing, as we were stationed a little to the left of the persons who were fired at. I did not see any arms of any kind with the country people on that day, and if they had them I must have seen them. I cannot say by whom the shot was fired which caused the death of the deceased. There were drawn up on the beach four or five policemen, ten dragoons, and twelve of the infantry, all of whom fired together, and from some one of whom the ball which struck the deceased must, I think, have come. I saw deceased that day get a blow of a stone on the arm, and observed him go to wash it in a well; but that occurred in a different part of the lands, and before we came near the cottage where the deceased received the fatal wound.
Joseph Barry, Esq., MD – I examined the body of the deceased, Michael Maguire, and found his death to have been caused by a gun shot which entered his right side between the fifth and sixth rib, penetrating the heart and wounding the lungs on either side, and passing through near the left breast.
Captain Nangle, Commander of Police, examined – I went out on Monday last with a party of police and military to serve processes for Tithes due to the Rev. Dr. Austen.
Mr. Edward Hoare – You mean you went out for the protection of a process server?
Captain Nangle – Yes, that is what I meant. The first house at which we found any opposition offered, the riot act was read, as the people assembled in great number, and exhibited every disposition to obstruct the process-server and to murder him, I do believe, if they could possibly get at him. The first place a quarter of a mile from the hill on which Maguire fell. My orderly received on that day a very severe wound under the ear, and I heard the deceased complain at the first house to Captain Lucas, of having received a blow on the arm which totally disabled it. The process server intended serving a process on a man owning a cottage to which a garden was attached, and which was bounded by a hill, on which a number of persons were assembled. On arriving there Captain Lucas ordered some of the men to clear the hill, which was effected without any resistance, and others to remain near the garden before the house. I saw a dragoon there receive a blow of a stone, and I was myself struck by a large stone, which was not, I am almost sure, intended for me, but thrown at the process server near whom I stood. The Riot Act was read twice on that day. The process server went out the day before I under stand, without receiving any injury; but I do not think it would have been safe for him to have proceeded into that part of the country on that day, unless accompanied by the military. I saw fires lighted on the different hills the evening before the day on which this transaction occurred; I cannot precisely say what meaning the people had in doing so; but I think, and wrote to Government to that effect – that they acted thus for the purpose of producing intimidation. – I didn’t see any arms in the hands of the people on that day, and I think if any of them were armed I must have seen them. The only offensive weapon I saw used by the people on that day, was a large stick in the hands of one who acted in a very violent manner.
Mr. Garrett Barry (through the Coroner) – Pray, Captain Nangle, has not this district, one in which you preside as Chief of Police, been, previous to this transaction, perfectly peaceable?
Captain Nangle – Indeed it has; and the parish in which this occurrence happened has been particularly quiet.
Mr. Barry – Do you think that they would resist any other legal process but one which was obtained for the purpose of enforcing the payment of tithes?
Captain Nangle – I know this, that when a rescue of some property which was under distraint, was, some time ago, effected, the people expressed, as a justification for their having done so, their belief that the property was distrained for tithes. I am aware of their having made that distinction. I never heard of their resisting any other legal process.To the Coroner – There was no previous intimidation given to this man who served the processes that he would be injured. He applied to me for a few Police to accompany him, but I did not think that it would be safe for them to go, and I, therefore, refused and referred him to Major Miller. There was no opposition offered yesterday (Tuesday). There was, however, a strong disposition to abuse the process-server, and Major Miller, at one time, considered it necessary to read the riot act. – There were great crowds following the soldiers. There were out yesterday nearly the entire of the 28th and 29th regiments, a squadron of the 7th Dragoon Guards, and a party of police. In fact, there was such a force as put resistance altogether out of the question, and in acting thus, I think that the most humane course that could be pursued was adopted towards the people.
Mr. G. Barry – Did you not hear Major Miller say, that he read the Riot Act in consequence of the numbers assembled, and not from any symptoms of resistance exhibited on the part of the people?
Captain Nangle – Yes, I believe I heard him express himself to that effect. Captain Hoare, and M. Cummins, Esq., were the Magistrates who accompanied the military on Monday. I saw Mr. Cummins’ boot cut through, and the upper part of his foot dreadfully lacerated, as if by some sharp instrument. When the soldier was shot, Capt. Hoare sent Mr. Cummins to Mr. Coppinger’s of Rossmore, to procure a car for the purpose of removing the body pf the deceased to Midleton, and on his way from that gentleman’s residence he was attacked and beaten. When I found him remaining a long time away, I got six Dragoons, and went towards Mr. Coppinger’s, where I found Mr. Cummins surrounded by a crowd, who immediately dispersed on our appearance.
Mr. Wm. Byng, Lieutenant of the 29th Regiment, a very young gentleman, apparently about 18 or 19 years of age, was next examined – I saw, said he, a countryman with a gun on Monday last, at 10 or 11 o clock in the day, when the act was read. I was about ten yards from the person who carried the gun. I took particular notice of him, and perceived that he used the gun as a walking-stick, the butt-end being on the ground. It was at the first cottage – not that near which the man was killed. I saw the man with the gun on Monday for a few moments, but I did not see him again until he was taken prisoner on Tuesday. He was, I suppose, seeking for the lives of our men.A Juror - Then if you thought such was his intention, why not take him into custody?
Coroner – Yes, that is the way , one would suppose, in which a person placed in such a situation would be likely to act.
Mr. Byng – I had not the power to do so. I mentioned the circumstance to the Magistrate, and I conceived that in doing so I discharged my duty.
A Juror (B. J. Hackett, Esq.) – There are several gentlemen have strand pieces in that neighbourhood. There is one, I know, is in the habit of using them – Mr. Coppinger, and from the fact of this man being seen only for a few moments in the day by Mr. Byng, it is not improbable that he might have been a messenger of Mr. Coppinger’s.
Mr. Garrett Barry to Mr. Byng – Did you instantly when you saw the man tell the Magistrate?
Mr. Byng. – No, I did not, but I said to the men who were near me – ‘there’s a man with a gun.’
Mr. Barry – Perhaps you would have the goodness to call some of those men to whom you made the remark.
The Coroner – It is my province, Gentlemen, to inform you that such a line of examination is altogether illegal, because when a witness is produced it entirely rests with the Jury to believe or disbelieve him; but it is certainly contrary to every rule of evidence to call witnesses to support the testimony of a witness whose veracity is unimpeached.
The Jury considering it unnecessary to call further witnesses,
The Coroner address them, and said – This is what is called a homicide by misadventure, as it occurs when a person, intending to do no injury, fires a shot and kills another. It would be quite otherwise if the person who fired was engaged in the perpetration of an unlawful act; but here it appears that the Military were under the direction of two Magistrates, and, as far as can be collected from the evidence, I don’t think that you can have any difficulty in finding that the shot which caused the death of the deceased came from the party composed of the Military and Police.
The Jury having retired for a short time, returned the following Verdict:-
‘That the deceased, Michael Maguire, came by his death on the 3d inst., in consequence of a gun gun (sic) shot which entered his right side, and passing through his body – which shot was fired whether by the police or soldiery, in protecting a Tithe-process server; and that the Jurors further say that the homicide was casual and by misadventure.’
________________________________________________
© Jean Prendergast 2002 - 2021. All Rights Reserved.
These pages are for the use and enjoyment of website visitors who are researching Cork history and genealogy and they are freely accessible. Some of the material is borrowed from others. Please do not link directly to any images on these pages, as that would constitute misuse.